#federal building

[dailybehbeh]

Behbeh

[instaviewpoint]

Today's Q & A

November 10 2024 Should the government support a separation of church and state by removing references to religion on money, federal buildings, national monuments, and at schools?

[reasoningdaily]

Federal building employees push for temporary closure over Legionella concerns

DETROIT (WXYZ) — Employees working at the Patrick McNamara Federal building in downtown Detroit are pushing to have it temporarily closed for Legionella concerns.

7 Action News first reported on issues within the building in December after the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) found elevated levels of lead, copper, and legionella in water in several sites throughout the building.

Ingesting copper, lead, and Legionella in drinking water can cause digestive issues, brain damage, and Legionnaire's disease among other health issues.

A group of employees working at the federal building say the 7 Action News December report was the first time they’d even been notified. At least two more agencies with office spaces at the McNamara building have moved to remote work or deployed workers to other facilities after hearing the report. Now employees say they want the building closed until GSA can 100% guarantee the building is safe.

"I don’t believe GSA is totally providing all information that they know. That makes it even scarier," said Monique Buchanan who has worked in the federal building for 15 years.

Buchanan is the president of AFGE Local 3239, which in part represents employees at the Social Security Field Office. She says she believes employees may have been ingesting the chemicals and bacteria for much longer than they realize.

"GSA has not identified at the earliest point that egionella and copper and lead has been in the water. My assumption is because we were on mandatory telework until about March of 2022, I am assuming when we re-entered the sites, this was there waiting on us. And I believe we’ve been taking in this water, washing our hands, breathing in the steam from hot water since at least March of 2022," said Buchanan.

Reports sent to building employees show over the last few months, GSA has run multiple tests at 120 sites. A November round of testing showed multiple sites with uncontrolled or poorly controlled levels of lead, copper, and Legionella.

Jan 2024 Report (December Testing) by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd

After taking several problem fountains and bathrooms out of service and performing enhanced flushing, GSA sent a letter stating that a December round of testing showed only one site still had elevated levels of copper. The letter also showed five sites including the bathrooms on the 21st floor still have uncontrolled levels of Legionella. It's unclear what percentage of total sites the 120 samples represent.

Employees say it's especially concerning because they service so many vulnerable populations.

"We have a range of public that comes into our buildings that rely on us of course for service primarily but, secondly their assumption is that they’re in a safe facility because it’s a federal site," said Buchanan. "The public will not access water fountains and water sites that are closed off but the areas that have not yet been tested, which is 75% of the building, is not closed off. So there are sites where potentially there is harm."

Greg Senden represents employees at another office within the building and says GSA has not been transparent enough throughout this process.

"I guess our concern is that GSA is not doing the job that they should be doing to maintain and keep the buildings that they operate safe," said Senden. "I would like to see GSA be more forthcoming with information. I would like to have the public and the employees that work in this building be made aware of what the issues are so they can decide for themselves whether it’s safe for them to be in the building."

Friday morning, 7 Action News reached out to GSA for a comment on what has been done to remedy the water issues since our December report however no one was immediately available.

The agency sent the following statement last month:

The safety of federal employees, the public and contractors working in federal buildings is GSA’s highest priority. Water tests conducted on Nov. 8 at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit determined elevated levels of Legionella in specific test points. GSA follows CDC guidance in addressing the risk of Legionella related illness. Immediately after receiving these test results, GSA notified building occupants, shut off the affected water outlets and restricted access to the outlets. In addition, GSA is continuing to flush water through these points while developing a full building water flushing and sampling testing plan. Additional testing is being conducted on the elevated test points. GSA continues to keep building occupants apprised of the latest safety precautions in place. Tanya Schusler Regional Public Affairs Officer  U.S. General Services Administration

"The goal here is not to point fingers or blame anyone. The goal here is just to make sure we have a safe facility here," said Buchanan.

Employees say they have also reached out to lawmakers to put pressure on GSA to remedy the issue. Senator Gary Peters who also has an office in the federal building sent the following:

“This is simply unacceptable. Members of the public who visit this building to access critical services, as well as the dedicated employees who work there, need to know that the water they are using is safe. I’ll continue pressing the General Services Administration to quickly and completely resolve this issue, and ensure they are responding to concerns like these effectively moving forward.” Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Testing at water sites within the building is still ongoing. The next round is expected later this month.

[urbs-in-horto]

Federal Building. Shot during School of the Art Institute Chicago Architecture summer class in 1971.

[saywhat-politics]

Trump to shut down all 8,000 EV charging ports at federal govt buildings

The Trump administration is shutting down EV chargers at all federal government buildings and is also expected to sell off the General Services Administration‘s (GSA) newly bought EVs.

GSA, which manages all federal government-owned buildings, also operates the federal buildings’ EV chargers. Federally owned EVs and federal employee-owned personal EVs are charged on those 8,000 charging ports.

The Verge reports it’s been told by a source that plans will be officially announced internally next week, and it’s seen an email that GSA has already sent to regional offices about the plans:

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA-owned charging stations are not mission-critical.”

The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and “turned off at the breaker,” the email reads. Other chargers will be turned off starting next week.

“Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”

Colorado Public Radio first reported yesterday that it had seen the email that was sent to the Denver Federal Center, which has 22 EV charging stations at 11 locations.

[whyeverr]

Classic Colonial

This grand, high style Colonial Revival home is as traditional as they come. One might even call it a bit stuffy. Of course I saved the biggest, fanciest, showiest for last — and honestly, I'm kinda meh about it. Symmetry, yawn...

Still, you'd be hard pressed to find a better style of home to decorate for Christmas in that classic, traditional way: between the formal living and dining rooms, this home has not one but two big, fancy windows for big, fancy Christmas trees. And with a live-in butler, the sky's the limit for hosting big Christmas parties.

This home might be perfect for: a sim family that is either very big or very rich (or better yet both), your own Home Alone-style kid sim's misadventures, fireplace aficionados (we've got 6!)

Lot details:

Lot Type: Residential (6 bed, 4 bath)

Price: §91,649

Size: 40x30

Location: Tranquil Crescent, Newcrest

I’ve used from all packs freely here. As always, no CC!

Download links and floor plans below the cut 🎄

Download via the Sims 4 Gallery or tray files via Sim File Share. You’re free to do whatever you want with the place but please don’t re-upload or share without credit. Thank you!

[sw5w]

Zam's Back

STAR WARS EPISODE II: Attack of the Clones 00:10:46

We get a few glimpses of Zam's hairstyle peeking out beneath her helmet, but we don't see her helmetless except in a few behind the scenes shots.

[dailyanarchistposts]

A friend of mine, a Trump supporter, recently sent me a social media post from an anonymous Seattle police officer about the “organized protest” zone, or autonomous zone, established by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The officer argues, in part, that “there is a part of our country that is no longer under our control,” and that “we [the police] have been castrated.” The post is mostly filed with misinformation, that the protest space has its own currency, ID system, and that the former police precinct, abandoned by the mayor and the city at the height of the protests, is being used as a BLM headquarters – no doubt a kind of black witches coven in their imagination. Indeed, in the language used in the post, “terrorists” and “anarchists” are stock piling “ammo and chemical weapons,” and are headed by a “warlord” who “drives a tesla and has been arrested for drugs, guns, pimping and crimes against children.” The officer concludes that “this is real,” and that “you can’t make this up.” These developments they call “unthinkable.”

The police are not the only ones hysterical at the loss of their station. Right wing media have also chimed in, exacerbating and stoking the fears of the Right. Fox media personality, Tucker Carlson, for example, bloviates on his nightly show that the founders of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) are “just like the conquistadors” because they’ve seized and occupied already established land and are extorting local businesses. Not to be outdone, President Trump, searching for an election year issue, called on the city of Seattle to attack and retake the space. He tweeted angerly, “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stopped IMMEDIATELY.”

What is unthinkable, or was at the beginning of the month, is the power of the Black Lives Matter movement in the streets. The emergence of the autonomous zone is a pinnacle of that power, a significant victory. It demonstrates the ability of popular power to win the impossible from structures of white supremacy – the state and the propertied interests they represent. That victory, and the subsequent diminution of state violence, is a major step forward for community self-control and autonomy. It shows that ending anti-Black violence is the first and most basic step to honoring Black life.

But it is just the beginning. Honoring Black life means constructing a society where Black autonomy and Black power are the cornerstones of community, and one where Black freedom is the foundation for broader, collective liberation. The advent of the movement’s autonomous zone was a step in that direction. Taking the city’s east police precinct demonstrates not only that our movements can win, but we can win previously unimaginable victories for Black lives.

There is another legacy now that must be dealt with from the CHOP. Much uglier, it is about the violence that took one life and left several in critical condition in a series of recent shootings. The shootings and the lack of direction for the space sadly demonstrate that our movements are not yet mature enough to know what to do with victory. As I write, the Seattle police are threatening to retake the building in the wake of the violence.

The shootings happened as the movement languished. With no clear direction, political, strategic, and tactical infighting broke out, reminiscent of Occupy Wall Street’s failures. Questions emerged over whether the encampment was for abolition or reform, taking the police station or not, “autonomy” or remaking existing institutions, marching or occupying, and others. This infighting was rooted in a lack of decision-making process that made even the most basic agreements impossible to gain collective consent.

In the autonomous zone, a diverse flowering of self-activity emerged, a variegated patchwork of mutual aid projects, support, care, and action that reflected the full diversity of the movement’s politics and people. That beautiful moment must not be lost in its downfall, but now with violence in the space, it must also be held within a more complex picture of the movement’s failures as well.

[aria-greenhoodie]

Defending my favorite little terrorist in the discord yesterday

[svtskneecaps]

"do you think god stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he created" except it's the qsmp admins realizing players including but not limited to forever, pierre, tazercraft, cellbit, phil, fit, bad, and etoiles are able and completely willing to break the server for reasons such as "to gamble more", or simply because it's funny

[sailorsally]

y'all I can live like this anymore

[darthonion]

STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES Behind the scenes. Leeanna Walsman as Zam Wesell.

[hotmessmaxpress]

hey. I live in a space that is being heavily raided by immigration enforcement (ICE). some of you may recall that I am a teacher. previous policies made churches and schools safe zones for undocumented people. the evil of this current government has gotten rid of that policy, and ICE is threatening schools.

this isn’t a call to action. I’m not asking for money. I’m not even on tumblr super often anymore. I’m just crying and there are so many on here that I love, so if y’all want to send good vibes or prayers or good thoughts the way of my children please do.

[comradeboyhalo]

crazy how every islander is upset q!foolish imprisoned their friends (normal) while q!bad is only upset he's working for the federation and, more importantly, that he broke bestie code and didnt include him

[bitcell]

i just think it's fair that the guy who flirts with the other side and has an obsession with occultism gets an ancient entity attached to him, and said entity, decides to follow him around and watch his every move, AND not only that, but also gets so intrigued with this mortal that he starts to lurk into his mind and use his powers to annoy him

and it would be very interesting if the husband of the mortal came from the same lineage of the ancient entity

[thoughtportal]

The Tenant Union Federation is a union of unions.

comrade Library